GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OG
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on the airoff the press
'Evil' wrestler wears pink and minces to jeering crowd
by John Graves
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is protesting a wrestler on Turner Network Television's World Championship Wrestling who uses exaggerations of gay stereotypes to get the audience to hate his character and root for his opponent.
There is a long tradition in pro wrestling to use minority, nationality and other cultural stereotypes for the designated "evil" wrestler so the audience will cheer the designated "good" wrestler.
This wrestler, who goes by the name of Lenny Lane, enters the arena prancing and skipping through the crowd adorned with ribboned pigtails, pink trunks, and body glitter. This exaggerated caricature of a gay man is designed to incite the crowd, which responds with chants of “Faggot! Faggot! Faggot!" The vehemence spikes whenever Lenny is punched or kicked, and the crowd responds with more wild cheers of "Faggot!"
GLAAD contacted World Championship Wrestling in August and received assurances that this characterization would be eliminated. However, GLAAD reports that WCW recently re-aired an episode involving Lenny Lane on the TBS cable station, and now says they want to complete "the Lenny storyline" before retiring the character.
MTV wins fairness award
On a better note, GLAAD will present its fourth annual Fairness Awards to MTV Networks and Entertainment Weekly at a ceremony to be held on October 27 in New York City. The awards honor institutions and individuals that have taken active, front-
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line positions for fair representation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people.
"MTV and Entertainment Weekly's leadership and commitment to principles of fairness and diversity made them clear standouts among the many institutions that were considered," said GLAAD executive director
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Garry added that “Entertainment Weekly's understanding of the breadth and complexity of issues facing our community and reports them the fairness and sensitivity they've brought to their work over the years." No more 'alternative lifestyles'
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has finally eliminated their insulting "Alternative Lifestyles" category for personal ads from people seeking same-sex partners. The daily paper, which originally prohibited same-sex personal ads altogether, had created that category when they lifted the ban a few years ago.
The ads now appear under the more appropriate "Women Seeking Women" and "Men Seeking Men" headings. It's been long overdue!
Nuns decry anti-gay stance
The PBS newsmagazine Frontline presented viewers with a film biography of "John Paul II: The Millennial Pope" on the show's Sept. 28 season première. The twohour show was followed by a message to log onto PBS Online at www.pbs.org, where the
viewer could find out more about the pope and his positions on subjects not covered in the telecast, such as homosexuality.
One of the features at the web site was a roundtable discussion on the topics of homosexuality and the ordination of women by three nuns, one college president and four authors, two of whom are former priests.
The bulk of the discussion was by two Benedictine nuns, Srs. Maria Faulkner and Nancy Hynes.
"I think that the pope does need to be on his knees to the many gay people who have been told that they are disordered—it's the internalization of this teaching that I think destroys people's lives," Faulkner said.
Hynes added, "And I can't see denying 10%, or whatever it is, of humanity their very nature. It's unconscionable that the pope should say 'Practicing homosexuals just can't receive the Sacraments.' I think that's the scandal of the Eucharist today. We say, 'Gays, you may not apply'. It just shocks me and horrifies me when I hear of priests turning away people from Communion.".
The site included an excerpt from The Poetry of Healing: A Doctor's Education in Empathy, Identity, and Desire by Rafael Campo which relates a doctor's coming to terms about being gay when a hospitalized junkie asks him to "pray for me." There was also an interview with Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, who has supported same-sex marriage and called for gay clergy to come out of the closet. Daryl Hannah will be an aunt
According to a report in October 12 issue of the Globe supermarket tabloid, actress Daryl Hannah's lesbian sister, film director Tanya Wexler, and her life partner, actress Amy Zimmerman, have made the well-known actress a brand-new aunt.
Zimmerman, who met Wexler while acting in Wexler's film Finding North, told the Globe, "Daryl was happy the moment she heard Tanya and I were going to have a baby. Now that our son is born, Daryl can't wait to see him and we can't wait to show him off."
Coming out into peace and love
Finally, what did you do for National Coming Out Day this year? I got a little jump on the day by coming out to my own extended family and my relatives at the occasion of my nephew's wedding in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago. Weddings are celebrations, and so is coming out. It was a day filled with peace and love.
John Graves is the producer and host of Gaywaves, a lesbian-gay public affairs show on Cleveland's WRUW 91.1 FM Fridays at 7 pm, and at http://radio.cwru.edu. Dave Haskell, Jim McGrattan and Kim Jones also contribute to this column.
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